Rainbow Warrior blocked by French fishermen

The original Rainbow Warrior was bombed by French secret service agents. Photograph: AP

The Rainbow Warrior, the ship belonging to the environmental group Greenpeace, today left the French port of Marseille after being blocked from docking by angry tuna fishermen.

For two days, French fishing boats surrounded Greenpeace's flagship preventing it from entering. But the Rainbow Warrior, which has been documenting the state of the Mediterranean, including the activities of Spanish, French, Italian, Turkish and Japanese bluefin tuna fishing vessels, ferried journalists out by boat to get the Greenpeace message across.

"We were here to tell people of overexploitation of bluefin tuna and how the French fleet is out of control," Sebastian Losada, a Greenpeace oceans campaigner, told Guardian Unlimited from the ship by phone.

Mr Losada accused the tuna industry of ignoring quotas and regulations through illegal fishing. The legal quota is 32,000 tons, but 45,000 tons were fished from the Mediterranean last year.

During its four months in the Mediterranean, the Rainbow Warrior managed to incorporate some humanitarian work by taking medical equipment to Beirut from Cyprus during the conflict in Lebanon. It is now sailing to southern Spain to highlight the need to protect the country's coastal areas.

Greenpeace's ships have a history with the French. The first Rainbow Warrior was blown up in 1985 in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, as it was due to lead a flotilla to Mururoa atoll in the Pacific to protest against French nuclear tests. The ship sank after two explosions, which were 60 seconds apart.

A Greenpeace photographer, Fernando Pereira, died in the attack. Two French secret service agents subsequently pleaded guilty to arson and manslaughter in a case that created a major diplomatic crisis between France and New Zealand.

The present Rainbow Warrior was launched in 1989 with many of its fittings paid for by compensation from the French government.

In this latest incident, the Greenpeace ship received permission in June to dock in Marseille, but this week that was revoked for "technical and security reasons" with no further explanation. The Rainbow Warrior anchored one mile out, brought journalists on board and carried out "frank" discussions with the fishermen who had surrounded the ship.